Diverse boards are more effective, and disclosure drives action.
Susan Angele, Senior Advisor, KPMG Board Leadership Center
Pressure on corporations to increase and disclose their board’s diversity continues to intensify. The murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans in the spring of 2020 and the subsequent social unrest accelerated corporate efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as stakeholder and regulator demands for faster progress and greater transparency.
Stakeholders have been especially focused on board racial and ethnic diversity and disclosure over the past year, recognizing that without such disclosure, progress cannot be measured. “Diverse boards are more effective, and disclosure drives action,” said KPMG Board Leadership Center (BLC) Senior Advisor Susan Angele.
To get a sense of the current disclosure landscape, the KPMG BLC analyzed board racial and ethnic diversity disclosure by Russell 3000 and S&P 500 companies from January to September 2021, reflecting changes made during the 2021 proxy season. The data shows a large increase in the disclosure of board racial and ethnic data at U.S. public companies during this period. The analysis was based on the KPMG Board Diversity Disclosure Benchmarking Tool, powered by ESGAUGE, which compares board diversity disclosure practices by index, sector, and company size.
S&P 500 companies disclosing the board’s aggregate racial and ethnic diversity
S&P 500 companies disclosing individual director race and ethnicity
Russell 3000 companies disclosing the board’s aggregate racial and ethnic diversity
Russell 3000 companies disclosing individual director race and ethnicity
Source: KPMG Board Diversity Disclosure
Benchmarking Tool, powered by ESGAUGE
A version of this article originally appeared in The Power of Difference by the National Association of Corporate Directors.
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